2025 Summer Vacation: Badlands National Park

Good Morning and Welcome Back to Bathroom Blues Travel Blog!

So far in our 2025 vacation journey we've been to TX, NM, AZ, UT, ID and Yellowstone which resides in 3 states including WY & MT as well as ID! Today we're heading to SD and Badlands National Park but first we stay overnight at 7th Ranch RV Camp in Garryowen, Montana. This gorgeous campground is surrounded by mountain pastures and boasts of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. The bathroom is equipped with large, spacious stalls, is nicely decorated and clean, clean, clean with papertowels to dry your hands - which as you know always makes me happy. 😆

We only stayed one night, so there was no time to visit area attractions, but if you have time, there is plenty to see and do.

The next day on the way to our destination in Wall, SD, along the I-90 corridor, we were greeted with beautiful, rolling green hills dotted with pronghorn sheep and antelope. But before that, we stopped for gas at an Exxon about 60 miles before Gillette, WY. There we found friendly service and clean restrooms as well.

We arrived at Sleepy Hollow Campground, a nice place to stay for a day or so. Their shower stalls were huge and the place was clean and had a dog park on site - which is always nice if you're bringing your pet along with you!

With only 1 full day to visit Badlands National Park, we set out early the next morning and saw buffalo, prarie dogs (whole 'towns' of them!) and pronghorn sheep. But what is so amazing about Bandlands is the terrain!

You're driving along and seeing green grass then everything changes and you find this...

Sharp, jagged peaks in large ravines. Can you imagine trying to traverse this on horseback or wagons?!

No wonder they call it 'badlands'.

Here are a couple of videos to give you a better view...

After 2 afternoons/nights and a full day in Wall (yes, we visited the 76,000 sq. ft. western-themed mall but if you know me, or learned from my post on Heathrow Airport, you know I'm not a big shopper LOL!) we headed south with only 1 more tourist destination in mind before home.

I'll share that one and the stops we made along the way in my next post, so stay tuned!

Until next time, travel happy.

PamT

2025 Vacation: Yellowstone National Park Day 2

Good Morning and Welcome Back to Yellowstone National Park!

Today I'm sharing photos and videos from day 2 of our visit to the third largest national park in the lower 48 states. Alaska hosts the five largest including Denali which I visited in 2021, followed by Death Valley and Glacier (which I visited in 2017). 

Anyway...

Day 2 in Yellowstone was just as exciting as day 1 only a lot ... smellier LOL! We traipsed around the Colloidal Pool, drove around Mamoth Hotsprings lower terraces (upper right pic is of Angel Terrace) and visited the Rosevelt Arch at the North entrance.

The Colloidal pool is located in Norris Geyser Basin and believe me, if you're sensitve to awful scents, you want to stay away from this! If you listen closely, you'll hear my honey ask if there is "smell-a-vision" on my phone LOL!

The many colors and various terrain that can be found in Yellowstone is what makes it a must see. In fact, many say if you can only visit One national park in your life, make it this one.

It is certainly a memory I'll never forget.

While there, we grabbed some lunch at the store in Canyon Village, which had nice, clean restrooms despite no seat covers and hand dryers - but still had me humming a happy tune 😍

I hope you've enjoyed this recap of 2025 vacation memories. We're not done yet. Next we're heading to South Dakota and Badlands so check back and come along for the ride!

Until next time, travel safe.

PamT

2025 Vacation: Yellowstone National Park Day 1

Good Morning from my soul's happy place and my home away from home, Bandera, TX! 

I drove up here last Wednesday (April 29th) and let me tell you, I am SO glad to be here. I've talked about how much this place to me in previous posts on what I'm now calling my "book" blog. You can find them here and here so I won't go into much about that but get straight into day 1 of Yellowstone National Park. **PLEASE NOTE: The Sliver Spur Guest Ranch mentioned in these two posts is not operating at the same capacity so if you go and read them, do so to understand on how much I LOVE and Treasure Bandera.** 

Now, on to Yellowstone...

If you've never been to Yellowstone National Park, you'll find the drive absolutely breathtaking. Huge rock formations, geysers, waterfalls, pools of boiling sulphur - you name it, it's there. 

Except bears.

I know, I know there ARE bears in Yellowstone but, for all of you who swear you can see them from the road... I saw ZERO bears! I've always said I have bear blood in me because come winter I'd love to hibernate so maybe that's my totem animal and it's bad luck for me to see one. Whatever the reason God has, we didn't see a single large, brown, fuzzy animal. 

Well, except for this guy and many more like him roaming around and blocking traffic... 😏

I've never seen a gyeser erupt so imagine my awe and wonder watching these two...

 Unlike Old Faithful, Beehive only erupts every few days or weeks so we were lucky to see this and it went on for 9 or 11 minutes and is much higher than Old Faithful.

The visitor centers were gorgeous and bathrooms had me singing a happy tune but you had to be careful walking outside because sometimes there were critters like this little fellow (click on the pic to enlarge) letting you know very vocally that you were pestering them LOL!

I mentioned earlier that it would take a couple of posts to recapp my visit to Yellowstone so I'll close this one for now and pray you come back for day 2.

Until next time safe travels!

PamT